Search Engine Optimization

Getting maximum value from the content posted on your website means that people must first be able to find the site! The content itself can be a magnet to attract visitors who are using search engines to find the types of products and services you offer. Keeping search-friendly design in mind and employing approved methods when structuring your website can advance your online visibility. In particular, the mechanisms behind SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enable people to find your site.

What are SEM and SEO?

SEM consists of various interconnected strategic actions taken to make a website more noticed by search engines such as Google or Bing, so ideally the site will appear on the first page of search results. These actions include SEO, paid placement, contextual advertising, digital asset optimization, and more. SEO, in particular, is the subset of SEM that’s most crucial to businesses. SEO focuses on optimizing a website’s content so that people using relevant keywords and terms will easily find the homepage or specific landing pages (see How Landing Pages Draw People to Your Site). When users search a topic using general words or phrases (such as “computer services”), rather than a specific company name, a site with strong SEO is more likely to appear at or near the top of the results.

How Can Your Site Benefit From SEO?

Making and executing a solid SEO strategy starts with the concept that the content on your site must match what your target customers are typing into search engines. Then, implementing an ongoing process requires much attention to detail, including:

Using words and phrases your customers are searching, and spreading them strategically throughout your website. Remember the words they use may not exactly match your business jargon.

Clearly showing your products and services, and making sure descriptions focus on terms used often in search engines.

Getting other sites to link to yours, also called “inbound links”, which will improve your search results. These include directories, blogs, other business sites, Google places, partners you work with, etc.

Building authority and relevance over time. These items are the most critical and also the most elusive. Search engines determine which page on the web is the most relevant and authoritative for a given search term and list it first. So, the strategy is to increase relevance and authority over time for each page on your site. The more people visit, read, share and link to your page the more authoritative it becomes.This is why quality content has become so important, because low value content does not shared.

Staying Effective as Search Engines Evolve

SEO and SEM are complex and rapidly changing areas of online marketing. Major search engine algorithms evolve – Google Hummingbird, for example, represents a significant advance in search dynamics – and businesses must adapt their strategies accordingly. Trends play a role too, from the impact of social media networks to using content marketing to get more inbound links.

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The Medium Well is a blog run by Harris Web Works, a full service digital agency located in New Haven, CT, USA.

NOTE: Medium Well was the name of our service business from 2006 until mid-2015. The new name, Harris Web Works, reflects our commitment to providing a wide range of online services for businesses, and builds upon the reputation of our founder, Matt Harris. The Medium Well was converted into a blog highlighting industry trends and best practices.